'Love made me do it': Man shoves hose down woman's throat

A MAN who subjected his former partner to horrific abuse, including shoving a hose down her throat, has said he was motivated by love in a letter to the court.

Dean Middlebrook's family filled half the gallery of the Maroochydore District Court in support of him as he pleaded guilty to a series of domestic violence incidents between April 2016 and March 2017.

During the most serious act in February 2017, the victim went to Middlebrook's home while he wasn't there to pick some of her things with her ex-partner.

While they were there, Middlebrook, 49, returned and began verbally abusing the two of them, so the woman's ex left.

Middlebrook then punched the woman in the face, kicked her twice in the back and spat on her face before he took her car keys and stole $100 from her car.

As the woman screamed for help, Middlebrook grabbed her by the throat, dragged her over to a garden hose and began spraying her with water.

He then shoved the hose down her throat while it was turned on and laughed as he kept taking it in and out.

Middlebrook told her he wanted to talk, but when she cried for help again he kicked her in the groin.

The woman managed to get away and reported the incident to police.

In a letter Middlebrook sent the woman the following month, he told her he would love her until she died and that he would kill himself before he went to prison.

Middlebrook was facing 15 charges including three counts of choking, suffocation or strangulation in a domestic relationship, two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed and one count of stealing.

He also pleaded guilty to breaching a domestic violence order four times.

During other acts of violence, Middlebrook hit the woman in the face and lifted her up by the throat until her feet were off the floor.

He was arrested in March last year and has been in custody since.

Middlebrook's lawyer, Joshua Jones told the court his client didn't have the skills to deal with his victim's alcohol problems and had never been violent in previous relationships.

Judge John Robertson said in a letter to him, Middlebrook had shown a "sense of self entitlement" and indicated the violence rose out of "love clouding judgement".

Middlebrook was ordered to a head sentence of three years, with the term to be suspended after 378 days, which he has already served.